Connect with Out-of-Town Buyers Before They Arrive

It's the dog days of summer folks! Things are a little slower, traffic is light, the phone took the day off and you're probably looking at your bank account and going "uh,oh! Gotta go to work!" Well, turn up the fan and let's get started! You've got about 3 months to be ready for season.

Start writing your blog on why you love Southwest Florida. If you aren't blogging on your website, start now! Using your Florida Home Realty agent website, adds to your Blog page and will begin attracting buyers. Blogging attracts visitors to your website by using keywords that you include in the copy. For example: create a landing page on your website featuring bundled golf courses. Then, write a blog (about 2000 words) about your favorite bundled golf courses. Upload it to your Facebook page and link it to the landing page on your website. Buyers who have typed those keywords and click through to your page are interested in bundled golf courses. (You may want to attend our next online marketing class to learn exactly how to do this.)

Create a Moving to Southwest Florida guide. Agents who have their website working for them 24 hours a day have added pages to their websites featuring restaurants, dog parks, beaches, golf courses, shopping, etc. and continue to have people return to the website for other things other than property searches. Post it to your Facebook business page with a link to your website along with a great visual and people will begin to share.

Market Statistics and what's being built around the area should be posted to your website. Who doesn't like being one of the first to know what's being built on the corner of Orange Blossom and Airport Road? Or, what the median or average price of a home in Bonita Springs? How many have sold, etc. I know for a fact that more people will click on statistics and read it more than any other topic out there.

Work with highly motivated customers. Prior to customers arriving to look at properties, take the time to review the area with your customers. Tell them in advance what to bring with them such as their checkbook, provide them with a local lender(s) who can pre-qualify them or a letter confirming enough cash to close, basic loan application information as well as copies of a trust or 1031 exchange documents. If they're not bringing that with them, then you may want to reconsider how motivated they really are. First time to the area buyers are going to need a little educating of course.

Using social media today in your business is a necessity. Want to increase your referral business? Want more leads to fill your pipeline? Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Snapchat are all great ways of reaching out to your customers. So turn down the a/c, pour yourself an ice cold drink and get creative!